7 Tips to Create the Perfect Infographic for your PR Campaign

By, Rosalie Morton (@rosaliemo)

Infographics took the PR and content marketing world by storm about a year and a half ago. In case you missed it, an infographic is an visually engaging illustration that brings data and facts to life, while telling a story. Essentially, infographics give jazz hands to what could be boring data.  Very social media and blog friendly, they are also easy to share.

Here are a few ways to make sure your infographic stands out from crowd and generates the media attention it deserves.

1. A Story Line – Before you get started with design, you need to map out the story you want your infographic to tell. It needs a beginning, middle and end, supported with compelling factoids and data. One of the most successful infographics we created was this one for Air New Zealand, which tells the story of their 30-year anniversary of their Los Angeles to London route. From the amount of food consumed, to the number of miles flown and top pop songs, we covered the gamut in an engaging way (so engaging, it was picked up by leading travel blog, Jaunted). Here’s just a snippet:

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2. Stats, Stats, Stats – At the core of a good infographic is compelling statistical data. Data that is interesting, but might cause your eyes to glaze over if it were presented merely as numbers and graphs. For instance, in our work with Web.com, we do a small business owner survey every year. We recognize that business stats can sometimes be less-than-scintillating. An infographic was the perfect way to bring our data to life. Visit the full infographic on the Web.com microsite.

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3. Timely – Like all things in PR, it’s great if you can time your infographic around a newsworthy event. We recently worked with the Hass Avocado Board on an infographic illustrating just how many avocadoes fans consume around the Big Game. Timeliness helps with media relations too, as this infographic was featured in Shape and Fitness. Check out the full version, designed by SiteLab.

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4. Facebook-Friendly – One of the best aspects of online content is its ability to be repurposed. Infographics can be  transformed very easily into Facebook posts. Just snip out parts of the infographic into Facebook-friendly sizes: 403×403 for regular posts and 843×403 for highlighted posts. Tip: Be sure to have your logo and a URL at the bottom of each snippet, so if they are shared, your company will receive the credit it deserves.

Check out these Facebook posts created from a Bridgestone Winter Driving infographic. The perfect sizes for sharing on Facebook:

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5. A Killer Landing Page – When you are in the early planning stages of creating your infographic, be sure you’re also thinking about where it’s going to live… it will need its own landing page. When people search, how are they going to find your infographic? Be sure to identify SEO keywords about your infographic and include them two or three times in the copy on your landing page. Have share buttons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest ready-to-go at the top of the page, as well as a download button.

6. Let’s GO, SEO – Infographics are perfect for generating inbound links. But, it’s your job as the infographic’s creator to optimize it properly. You can do this with a simple WordPress plug-in, Embed Code Generator. This plug-in creates an embed code for your infographic, ensuring that it’s easily shared and generating links back to your site.

7. Pitch and Syndicate – Now that you’ve created a very cool, optimized infographic and an amazing landing page, it’s time to make sure it’s seen by your audience! In addition to a targeted blogger and web outreach strategy, we suggest using a distribution service, like BrandPoint. This combination of earned-media and syndicated distribution will increase the reach of your infographic significantly.

Have any extra thoughts and tips for infographics? Share in the comments, below!

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